Anti-Thackeray stir continues in Uttar Pradesh

Allahabad/Lucknow Oct 30 (IANS) After a brief interlude for Diwali, protests against attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra resumed Monday in Uttar Pradesh with various groups blocking rail traffic and burning effigies of Raj Thackeray.While Samajwadi Party workers blocked rail traffic on a majority of routes Thursday in Allahabad, members of the Akhil Bhartiya Bhojpuri Samaj (ABBS) burnt the effigy of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Thackeray in front of the state assembly in Lucknow.

The ABBS, with a state-wide membership of 1.5 million, also threatened to boycott all Bollywood films supported by the Thackerays or with actors close to them.

“Yesterday (Wednesday), Govinda stood besides him (Thackery) and we have decided to ban all his films in the entire north Indian region,” Prabhunath Rai, president of ABBS, told IANS.

“We will also be launching a countrywide agitation from Nov 1 with a demand to impose National Security Act on Thackery,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ram Narayan Rai, father of the Dharmraj Rai, who was battered to death by miscreants in a suburban train in Mumbai Oct 27, refused to accept Rs.200,000 in compensation from the Maharashtra government.

“Is this the price the Maharashtra government has decided for my son’s life? Ask Raj Thackery to meet me and I will give him Rs.20 lakh (Rs.2 million) and I will not hesitate to sell all my land or take loan to do this,” he said.

Dharmaraj, who went to Mumbai to earn a living two and a half months ago, planned to return to his native place the day he was killed.